Photo: GeekWire.com / Alan Boyle
Elon Musk may be playing nice on Twitter after a series of messages and spats that did considerable damage to his image and put somewhat of a dent into that of his company, but he’s standing by his previous, outrageous comments.
In July this year, after the Thailand cave rescue operation was completed and all the boys trapped inside had been taken to solid ground (and safety), Musk picked a Twitter fight with one of the divers who had been involved with the rescue team.
In all fairness, it was Vernon Unsworth who started the fight, by going to the media and saying that the submarine Musk built for the rescue operation was only a shameless PR stunt that would never work. Because of that, Unsworth not-so-kindly invited Musk to take the sub and shove it where the sun don’t shine.
Musk is not the guy to take public jabs like that lightly, so he came at Unsworth strong. He went on Twitter and accused the diver, who spends half his time in Thailand and half in the UK, of being a “pedo guy.” He also said he was willing to wager on that but never provided any proof for his claims.
Hours later, as Tesla shares dipped, Musk deleted his tweets and sent out an apology to Unsworth. Well, according to his emails to BuzzFeed, that was only for show: he still believes that to be true about the diver and he still insists on that Unsworth was never part of the rescue operation.
“I suggest that you call people you know in Thailand, find out what’s actually going on and stop defending child rapists, you f**king a**hole,” Musk writes. “He’s an old, single white guy from England who’s been traveling to or living in Thailand for 30 to 40 years, mostly Pattaya Beach, until moving to Chiang Rai for a child bride who was about 12 years old at the time.”
“As for this alleged threat of a lawsuit, which magically appeared when I raised the issue (nothing was sent or raised beforehand), I f**king hope he sues me,” Musk adds.
He did say before getting into the message that it should be “off the record,” but since the source never agreed to that, so they made the email public. Musk continues to say that Unsworth wasn’t only missing from the rescue operation, but he was actually banned from the site by the government.
Not a single one of his claims could be verified and, again, he didn’t provide a shred of evidence to back them up. What Musk did do is bring the old (and settled) feud back into the spotlight and put himself on the spot again, by acting like a petulant, bullying millionaire who can’t stand to be criticized – for a good reason or not.
In all fairness, it was Vernon Unsworth who started the fight, by going to the media and saying that the submarine Musk built for the rescue operation was only a shameless PR stunt that would never work. Because of that, Unsworth not-so-kindly invited Musk to take the sub and shove it where the sun don’t shine.
Musk is not the guy to take public jabs like that lightly, so he came at Unsworth strong. He went on Twitter and accused the diver, who spends half his time in Thailand and half in the UK, of being a “pedo guy.” He also said he was willing to wager on that but never provided any proof for his claims.
Hours later, as Tesla shares dipped, Musk deleted his tweets and sent out an apology to Unsworth. Well, according to his emails to BuzzFeed, that was only for show: he still believes that to be true about the diver and he still insists on that Unsworth was never part of the rescue operation.
“I suggest that you call people you know in Thailand, find out what’s actually going on and stop defending child rapists, you f**king a**hole,” Musk writes. “He’s an old, single white guy from England who’s been traveling to or living in Thailand for 30 to 40 years, mostly Pattaya Beach, until moving to Chiang Rai for a child bride who was about 12 years old at the time.”
“As for this alleged threat of a lawsuit, which magically appeared when I raised the issue (nothing was sent or raised beforehand), I f**king hope he sues me,” Musk adds.
He did say before getting into the message that it should be “off the record,” but since the source never agreed to that, so they made the email public. Musk continues to say that Unsworth wasn’t only missing from the rescue operation, but he was actually banned from the site by the government.
Not a single one of his claims could be verified and, again, he didn’t provide a shred of evidence to back them up. What Musk did do is bring the old (and settled) feud back into the spotlight and put himself on the spot again, by acting like a petulant, bullying millionaire who can’t stand to be criticized – for a good reason or not.
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